Nitish banks on pedal power to stay in saddle

At the fag end of the six-phase Assembly poll process in Bihar, a journey into the southern part of the state unravels how Nitish's development formula is beginning to metamorphose even its Naxalism-hit interiors.

advertisement

Rahul Kanwal

November 14, 2010

UPDATED: November 14, 2010 15:20 IST

One bicycle and two pairs of school uniform are proving to be game changers in the Bihar assembly elections. What's the big deal you may ask? For people in this impoverished state, who have never seen any manifestation of governance for the last 60 years, the cycle and the uniform represent what the Nitish Kumar government has done for them. And they are thrilled.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar gifts a bicycle to a schoolgirl in Jehanabad.

As I travelled through the Naxal affected areas of South Bihar, in Gaya and Aurangabad, family after family narrates tales of how the 25 lakh cycles distributed by the Nitish Kumar government changed the lives of girls here. Given the horrible condition of roads and the high levels of crime, families never encouraged their daughters to go to school. But that's changed now thanks to Nitish Kumar and that's why he's likely to emerge a handsome winner when the last vote has been counted on November 24.

Nitish's biggest achievement is bringing law to a state where order had ceased to exist. Five years ago, villages in Bihar had electricity poles but few carried power. There were many schools but hardly any teachers. Police stations existed, policing did not. Nitish has, to a large extent, changed that. There's a sparkle in a shopkeeper's eyes in Barachatti village as he tells me about how he's able to keep his shop open till 8:00 PM every night. Earlier, nobody dared venture out after 5 PM, for fear of being kidnapped. The Naxal threat is now receding in these elections. Naxals had given a boycott call, threatening dire consequences. But judging by the turnout in some of the most naxal prone areas, it seems like people have boycotted the boycott call.

Nitish has broken the back of the mafia in Bihar. More than 52,000 criminals have been put behind bars, including many criminals in the garb of politicians. Dons like Mohammad Shahbuddin, Pappu Yadav, Akhlaq Ahmed, Sunil Pandey and Rajen Tiwary are out of circulation. Local MLAs are no longer able to lord over their terrain. Superintendents of Police and District Magistrates have been empowered to clamp down on illegal activities of all politicians, including those of the JD(U). Kidnapping is no longer the pre-eminent industry in Bihar. But Bihar's biggest problem is that no other industry has come up either.

And Nitish realises this. Restoring law and order is just the beginning. The state still has no industry to speak of. Generating investor confidence is one of the key tasks for the next government. Nitish has been pushing the PM hard to grant Bihar the status of a special category state, which would mean several tax incentives for industries that set up shop over the next 10 years.

But given Nitish's frosty relationship with the Congress, this favour is unlikely to come through. "The Congress is not serious about helping Bihar, otherwise the government would not hold up all our development projects. Coal linkages are not being granted to proposals to set up thermal power plants. Investors want to make Ethanol out of sugarcane juice, but the centre is sitting on these proposals. For the past five years the PM has not even given time to meet an all party delegation from Bihar", an exasperated Nitish Kumar told Headlines Today in an exclusive interview.

In the absence of private investment, the government will have to continue to rely on public funds to usher in growth. To reduce levels of pilferage in the use of government funds, Nitish has introduced the Bihar Special Courts Act. Under the act, the state government can impound property belonging to any civil servant who is found to have assets disproportionate to his levels of income. In rally after rally, people cheer loudest when Nitish threatens bureaucrats to work honestly or else the state will take over their houses and set up schools there.

These elections will mark the further slide into oblivion for Lalu Prasad, one of the most lovable politicians in the country, but also one of the most riled. During his campaign, Lalu has been urging people for one more chance to right the wrongs of his 15 years of governance. But people are not buying his promises.

For them Lalu represents the era of darkness, an age from where the state is just about beginning to emerge, and they are in no mood to give him a second chance. And Lalu knows this. I bumped into him at the Patna airport, before taking off with Nitish Kumar. He was in a foul mood. He senses a media conspiracy against him. He's angry with the opinion polls for showing Nitish so far ahead, so much so, he now prefers to stay away from the press. Requests for interviews are angrily warded off. The tide has turned for the original darling of TV cameras.

The most important thing to look out for in these elections is whether people will continue to vote on caste lines or whether development will triumph over caste. Previous elections have been won or lost on the strength of caste alliances. For the first time, people are saying that they will vote for development and not for caste. To believe that people will vote regardless of caste will be nave.

Experts like Saibal Gupta, Member Secretary at the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna, say, "Caste will not be the only benchmark in deciding electoral fortunes. The development component will also get a substantial presence because if one has to choose between two candidates belonging to the same caste, people will vote for a person who has a direct developmental agenda."

Over the last five years Nitish has been able to create a sense of Bihari sub-nationalism on the lines of Tamil or Gujarati pride. By invoking Bihari pride, Nitish hopes voters will transcend caste lines. Nitish told Headlines Today, "Caste has receded into the background, development has taken centre stage. People are rejecting Lalu because he talks only of caste. The youth have aspirations for growth. People have moved beyond caste, unless politicians change their mindset, they will become irrelevant."

Under Lalu, Bihar had come to symbolise all that's wrong with governance in India. The state lagged in every development index. Industry was absent. Law and order did not exist. People saw no future. They were forced to travel outside the state in search of work. In five years Nitish has managed the near impossible, he has pulled Bihar out of the abyss. He has kindled hope. You can see it in people's eyes when they talk about how life has changed in the last five years. Bihar and Bihari are no longer derogatory words. The glorious days of the Magadh empire may be a long way away, but for a people who had lost hope, it's a great beginning.

After losing parliamentary elections Mani Shankar Aiyar had declared that development can never win an election in India. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and Digvijay Singh in Madhya Pradesh were cited as examples of leaders who worked on development but still lost. Riding on development, Sheila Dixit has won three terms in Delhi. But pundits dismissed Delhi as an urbanised state, which did not reflect the realities of India. If Nitish Kumar wins in Bihar, Indian politics will have taken a step away from casteism, sectarianism and communalism and stepped into a new era where elections are won and lost on the basis of development. This bodes well for the country.

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from